Article Writing - Get Inspiration For Topics By Reading Magazine Headlines

If you're writing articles to submit to article directories, or to add content to your home page or blog, you're probably in constant search for new ideas to write about.

One that works great is by checking the headlines on articles in your niche. Go to your nearest shopping center, and take a look at the magazines there. Or you can find them online, perhaps. See, what they are talking about, and get inspiration for articles, you can write yourself.

If you're in the weight loss business, you can probably find a large number of articles talking about how to lose weight. You should have enough knowledge about your niche to write your own article, solely inspired by the headline.

Also, a great way to find inspiration for your article titles are the headlines, the magazines use. You should know that these are designed to be eye-catching and selling. So if you can twist them around to suit your own use, you'll have a great headline for your article.

This doesn't necessarily have to be headlines from within your niche. You can substitute a word or two, and make it your own, in a totally different niche.

That way: "How To Lose Weight In Eight Simple Steps" could end up being "How To Get Your Ex Back In Eight Simple Steps", or whatever you're writing about.

When you're writing your article, you should obviously not copy the headline word by word. You should only use it for inspiration. If the magazine headline is "How To Lose Weight With Yoga", you could write an article titled "Weight Loss - Is Yoga Your Solution?" Just use the main idea as inspiration.

When you have the main idea, and if you don't know exactly what to write, you can do a search online. Find three sources, and skim through the articles. Search for the main points in these three sources, and write them down in your own words.

Now you should have enough to write a full article. Just start with an introduction to the subject, and write what you're about to write about. Tell the reader that they'll learn more about these three main points.

Then write a paragraph for each of the three main points. If you need a conclusion, you can do a resume, and tell the reader what you just told him.

There you go - you have your article written and done.

How to Craft Effective Headlines Easily

Headlines largely contribute to the success of an article. It is an attractive headline that arrests the attention of the readers. A headline that is confusing or dull will definitely not call for maximum page views. Thus, you are doomed, if you overlook the importance of headlines and think of making your article effective in some other way.

Writing a headline is all about creativity. You really have to think of something out of ordinary that will compel the readers to read your article. Below, I have listed some basic points that every writer should bear in mind, in order to create the ideal title for the article.

While writing the title of the article, keep the target readers in mind.

Browse through the other articles on similar topics and evaluate the kind of titles that attracts your attention the most.

The headline should have the power to garner the reader's trust and faith.

Also, make sure that the title is not too complicated. It has to be precise and to the point.

Some all time favorite headline templates are given below:

How To Lose Weight in 14 Days?
5 Hot Tips To Lose Weight Fast
The Secrets to Quick Weight
Do You Want Some Sizzling Tips To Shed Off Those Extra Pounds?
Are Those Extra Pounds Bothering You?
Discover How You Too Can have The Most Desirable Figure

These are just some of the many popular headlines templates. Keep in mind, people mostly search for information online to find solutions to their problems. Therefore, a plain and blatant title will never have a good enough impact on the reader's mind.

 If you are too confused about giving your article a suitable headline, then don't brood over it much. Start writing the article and after you finish it, then write the title of the article. This process works well for many as it becomes easier to create the headline after understanding the kind of direction the final article has taken.

Last but not least, make the starting letters of all the words in your headline capital and also make the entire headline bold to make sure that it gets proper attention.

7 Ways To Write Attention Grabbing Headlines

Reach out and grab your readers with attractive, click persuasive and winning headlines.  Watch as your promotional ROI (return on investment) increases fast! Follow the steps below and turn those browsers into buyers by sucking them into your advertisement or sales page with irresistible Headlines.

Below are 7 ways that you can attract readers and more importantly buyers of your product or service.  If you use one or all of them it doesn’t matter, just use these techniques I have outlined for you.

How To… - This is one of the top performing headlines. People want to learn steps, how to do something. For example, “7 Ways to Write Attention Grabbing Headlines” or “How to Spot a Fake Louie Vuitton”.  So tell them!

News Headline – Get to the point right off the bat. “Service Company Teams up To Fill in Gaps with Children’s Fundraiser.” Then write that inverted pyramid style with the most detailed information (who, what, when, where, why, how) on top.

Featured Benefit Headline – Disclose your biggest benefit right at the top. Draw attention by opening in grand style, “Marketers Get Over 50% of Their Emails Opened with New Auto responder Technology.”  Do you see who was benefited in the preceding headline?  It’s as plain as the nose on your face right?  That’s how you want it to be.  Do not make people guess or this will lead to confusion.

Solve A Problem – Pick a popular problem being discussed in your niche or industry and then use it to your advantage. For example, “Turn Your Private Label Products into Profits in 5 Minutes with This New Audio Mastery Series.”  How about, “Double Your List Size in 7 Days With This Viral Software.”  See how I got your attention with a headline proposing a solution to a problem?

Share Personal Discovery – Create interesting story angles out of your own would-be bloopers like, “Everyone Told Me I’d Never Be Able to Quit My Day Job, But I Did It in One Month and with only a $10 Investment!”   Try this one, “Wrong Email to Wrong List Leads to Unexpected Profits!”  Do not be afraid to admit mistakes.  We are all human and letting your prospective customers and list members know this will improve your re pore with them.

Case Study or Testimonial Headline – Place the focus on those interesting story angles of others; for example, “Jack Stuffed My Mailer in the Trash, Then Dug It Out, Listened to the Audio Files, and Earned $12,457 in Just 30- Days!”

Guarantee Headliners – Add your bottom line up top, “Earn Your Money Back in 30 Days or Less or I’ll Double Your Money Back!”  Also, “Double Your Money Back if You Don’t Double Your Money!”

Put any of these top formulas to work on your websites, articles and press releases. I can assure you that you will receive a better response to your ads than previous attempts.  The ways to format your headlines above are tried and tested, don’t try and change the wheel on this one.  Make it easy on yourself and just follow what has been proven to work.

Today it is harder than ever to get people to read what you want them to.  Heck, it’s hard enough to get them to stop for a second to do so.  Everyone is so busy these days and in a give it to me now society you have to give it to them now.  Writing headlines that get straight to the point is what will cause people to stop and take notice.  Make sure you put a lot of thought into your headlines and watch your ROI skyrocket!

Article Writing Tips - Find Out the Reason Why Many Writers Have Weak Headlines

Why is it so many article writers out there suffer from weak headlines? There are actually a few main reasons this problem exists. These include:

·         They don't realize the importance of headlines


·         Don't know how to work their keywords into an attention-grabbing headline


·         Focus so hard on the article, they skip the headline


·         Not a lot of experience writing headlines


·         Afraid catchy headlines will be "too much" or "over the top"


The thing about article headlines is that a little bit of sensationalism is sometimes needed to get the attention of the reader. Because there is so much content on the Internet, you need to stand out some way. Bland, boring article headlines will get overlooked for something catchier even if the article itself is not as good.

Now that you know the reasons why so many writers have weak headlines, it's time to learn how to improve it yourself. It's easy to improve your headlines when you identify why you have the problem. Consider the reasons above and which ones apply to you.

Now what can you do about it? You now know that headlines are as important as your article content itself. So now you just need to learn how to write great ones. Article headline templates can be one way to start doing this until you learn to do it well on your own.

You can use these templates and then just fill in the blanks for your subject and keywords. This will then make the article headline apply to your specific article. After time of doing this regularly, you will start tweaking these templates to your own attention-grabbing headlines.

Do Your Headlines Come With a Snooze Button?

You will see e-book authors make ludicrous claims that the average North American reads at a sixth grade level. One author even claimed that Americans now read at a third grade level. This was no doubt to take away from the glaring spelling and grammatical mistakes he made throughout his book. It was as though this disclaimer excused his laziness in creating a low quality product.

The problem is not that we are becoming a nation of illiterates. The problem is that we are becoming a nation with an attention span of a two year old child. If what we see doesn't hold our attention we are merely one click away from the finding something that does. Experts say you now have three seconds to grab someone's attention. Your headline sells the article.

We all judge books by their covers and now we judge articles by their headlines. There is nothing wrong with doing this and in fact it is really nothing new. Newspapers have sensationalized headlines for decades in order to get people to read the story. The evening news took this concept even further with their commercial teasers. These advertisements would appear in the middle of a program and dropped little bombs so people would watch the news that evening. "Tonight, drinking a certain brand of milk can cause blindness. Tune in at seven to find out what you need to know to keep your sight."

Writing a good headline is considered to be a talent. Writing a good title is also an important talent. Which essay would your rather read, The Poems of Robert Frost or Frosty The Poem Man? While it is important for your article to have a catchy title, it is equally important that the headline accurately reflects the article. Some people have begun writing headlines with well paying keywords while the articles are about something else entirely. This will result in angry readers and may result in a punitive response from Google as well.

Look on your title as a call to action. Ask yourself what the main point of your article really is. Write down this point and begin to play around with it. What will happen if people will follow the advice in the article? What will happen if people do not follow the advice in the article? Now focus either on the benefits or the risks and try to narrow it down to a single phrase. Now look for some action words to punch up this phrase and you should have yourself a winning headline.

Progressive Headlines Guide Customers To Buy

Headlines are, without a doubt, one of the most important elements in copywriting.  As has been said countless times before, if you don't get your readers' attention with the headline, the chance of them reading your copy is virtually none.  But headlines (and sub-headlines) play a vital part in the copywriting process for other reasons, too.

Whether we, as copywriters, like it or not, the fact is most people will not read all the copy word for word.  Headlines can help fill in the blanks in several ways so "skimmers" still get the gist of the information included in the copy.

Headlines Outline the Benefits

Using headlines and sub-heads that state benefits about your product/service can be a powerful strategy.  Using wireless home networking for example, you might create headlines and sub-heads that read:


Work From Anywhere In Your Home

    No More Jumbled Cables Strung Everywhere

    Have Multiple Computers Online At The Same Time

    Make All The Computer Users In Your Home Happy



Even if the customer didn't read the copy included in between these heads and sub-heads, they would still be made aware of all the benefits of having a wireless home network.

Headlines Give An Overview

Depending on the type of copy you're writing, headlines can help to urge your customers to read further.  In fact, in long-form copy, headlines should create their own sub-set of copy.  If you read just the headlines, they should make sense all by themselves.  For example, copy about a new book on how to start your own business might use the following headlines.

   

New Book Takes You Step-by-Step Through Starting Your Own Business


An introduction would go here as well as copy designed to gain the attention of the reader.

Starting A Business Is Easier Than Ever

Continue with the copy here.

The Little Known Secrets In This Book Will Show You How

More copy here.

See?  As you read through the headlines and sub-headlines they make sense even without any copy.  This serves to give an overview of the information to those customers who may not read every word of the copy you've written.  If they read just the headlines and sub-heads, they'll still understand what you're offering.

Headlines Can Raise Curiosity

Make a statement that's so unusual it doesn't make sense.  Create "cliff-hangers" with your headlines and only give so much information before stopping.  When you use these and other interest builders, you can encourage customers to read further into your copy just to satisfy their curiosity.  Using natural gardening products as our example, the headlines and sub-heads often look like this:


My Roses Are Bursting With Blossoms Since I Stopped Watering Them

    My Prize-Winning Tulips Would Wither Up and Die If It Weren't for...

    Which Annual Blooms Twice As Big When You Give It A Beer/Shampoo Cocktail?



These statements make you think.  They start the reader wondering so that he/she continues to read on to get the rest of the story.

When creating headlines in your copy, think about how they all work together.  Instead of just plopping bolded words in between paragraphs, create a plan revolving around progressive headlines that can lead your readers to buy.

Make Or Break it With Headlines

Anyone who has experienced trying to read the front page of a daily paper that measures 13 by 22 inches knows how headlines literally wrestle for a reader's attention. Although, of course, the page layout, including size and placement, has a lot to do with what piece is read first, the way a headline is worded can also make or break a story. Let's put it this way: a so-so story with an extremely catchy and curious headline might prove to be disappointing, but it will still be read. The same story with a humdrum headline will not be read at all.

While writing headlines for journalistic articles and for web copies are different in terms of their target audience, the principle under which they work are basically the same: to capture the essence of a piece and, hopefully, catch attention.

The need for good headlines

In a nutshell, a headline can determine whether a user will click through to a copy or not. This is what's in the mind of most who write copy for an online audience. The possible downside of this thinking is sacrificing accuracy. Some opt to misguide intentionally just to get hits. Remember that clicks alone will not translate to business automatically. Hence, it's really not worth trying to misguide prospective customers through deceptive headlines.

A headline, in journalism parlance, is the gist of the gist of a story. When writing copy for the web, this can be overly simplistic. There are more things to consider than just condensing a piece into several words. While doing that, for instance, remember to be creative and inspired in thinking of your headlines. The World Wide Web is astronomically bigger than any single newspaper. And even with the help of a search engine to narrow down results, the webpages (and headlines) competing for a user's attention is unimaginably voluminous. This is where a good headline edges out a mediocre one.

The writing itself

When writing headlines, it is best to strike a balance between accuracy and creativity. The first part, simply put, means saying what you want to say, no complication, no catch. Trying to impress via headlines is not only needless and arrogant, it can also backfire in the long run. Thinking about it, writing for the sake of trying to impress often works to one's disadvantage.

After figuring out what you really need to say (in other words, what your piece says), figure out the most effective, creative, catchy, clever way of saying it. While you tirelessly try to excite and reel people in through your headlines, remember that headlines are the bait, and your copy is the fishing rod that reels people in.

As with writing for journalistic purposes, headlines of web copies differ on what purpose they will serve. The tone of your headline usually sets the mood for the rest of the article. Reserve funny headlines for funny pieces, satirical ones for parodies, academic ones for research papers, you get the picture.

The Content Annex can craft strong copies and relevant articles for your website. We also write press releases, sales copies, blogs, SEO articles, e-books, newsletters, autoresponder emails, and content for other marketing materials.

How to Write Headlines for How-to Articles

 Want to write a how-to article but can't come up with a topic?

Start by naming the three biggest problems your customers or clients face. You've just come up with three ideas for three different articles. Be sure the topics tie into a service you provide, a product you sell, or a cause or issue you want to promote.

Once you've chosen a topic, it's time to select a title. Here's a list of possibilities. Simply fill in the blank, depending on what you've decided to write about.

A Part-Timer's Tactics for a Full-Timer's ______________

A Quiz: Test Your ______________ Smarts

Cash in on _______________ Trends

Chasing the Right ______________

Cool Tools for Today's ______________

Common Errors That Kill ______________

Discover the 7 Essential Elements That Guarantee ______________

Finding the ______________That is Uniquely You

Good News for ______________

How to Bounce Back from ______________

How to Get Other People to ______________

How to Handle ______________

How to Make ______________ Work for You

How to Make Your ______________ Dreams Come True

How to Turn ______________ into ______________

Mastering the Art of ______________

No More ______________

Part-Time ______________, Full-Time Success

Questions and Answers About ______________

Straight Talk from a ______________

The Great _____________ Dilemma

The Most Beginner-Friendly ______________

The Last Word on ______________

The Amazing Solution for ______________

The Best and Worst Ideas for ______________

The Complete Guide to ______________

The Worst Mistakes You Can Make When ______________

Top 10 ______________ Do's and Don'ts

What's HOT and NOT in ______________

When Not to ______________

Your Must-Know Guide to ______________

_________________ with Pizzazz!

_________________and Grow Rich

______________ on the Cheap

5 Ways to Get More from Your ______________

5 No-Fail Strategies for ______________

6 Secrets to Successful ______________

7 Ways to Keep Your ______________ Dreams Alive

7 Ways to Avoid the Most Deadly ______________ Mistakes

8 Ways to Avoid the Worst ______________ Mistakes

9 Formulas for Fantastic ______________

10 User-Friendly Facts for ______________

10 Tips to Jump-Start Your ______________

11 Questions You Must Ask When You're ______________

12 Tactics to Open Up ______________

13 Tips That Will Make a _______________ Smile

10 Time-Tested Tips for Becoming a ______________

25 Quick ______________ Tips to Use Now

26 Holiday Gifts for ______________